Contents

"People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they're afraid it might be true. Peoples' heads are full of knowledge, facts and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool."

"There is magic in sincere forgiveness. Magic to heal. In forgiveness you grant, and more so in the forgiveness you receive."

Temple of the Winds, Chapter 41, page 318

"Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie."

Soul of the Fire, Chapter 28, page 205

"The most important rule there is, the Wizard's Sixth Rule: the only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason. The first law of reason is this: what exists, exists, what is, is and from this irreducible bedrock principle, all knowledge is built. It is the foundation from which life is embraced." — Richard

Faith of the Fallen, Chapter 41, pages 459-60

"Life is the future, not the past. The past can teach us, through experience, how to accomplish things in the future, comfort us with cherished memories, and provide the foundation of what has already been accomplished. But only the future holds life. To live in the past is to embrace what is dead. To live life to its fullest, each day must be created anew. As rational, thinking beings, we must use our intellect, not a blind devotion to what has come before, to make rational choices."

The Pillars of Creation, Chapter 60, page 549

"Talga Vassternich. Deserve Victory."

Naked Empire, Chapter 61, page 626

A contradiction cannot exist in reality. Not in part, nor in whole.

Chainfire, Chapter 48, page 489

"Willfully turning aside from the truth is treason to one's self."

Phantom, Chapter 12, page 127

"The rule of all rules. The rule unwritten." The Unwritten rule. Knowledge is dangerous in the wrong hands.

Confessor, Chapter 65, page

You can destroy those who speak the truth, but you cannot destroy the truth itself.

The Omen Machine, Chapter 70, page 446

Life gives dimension to time.

The Third Kingdom, Chapter 26, page 175.

“There have always been those who hate, and there always will be.”

Severed Souls, Chapter 47, page 306

“In this world, everyone must die. None of us has any choice in that. Our choice is how we wish to live.”

"There is no such thing as pure good or pure evil, least of all in people. In the best of us there are thoughts or deeds that are wicked, and in the worst of us, at least some virtue. An adversary is not one who does loathsome acts for their own sake. He always has a reason that to him is justification. My cat eats mice. Does that make him bad? I don't think so, and the cat doesn't think so, but I would bet the mice have a different opinion." — Zedd

"The worse you are at thinking, the better you are at drinking." — Zedd

"I fear no secret of a person I trust, and he has no need to fear mine. It is part of being friends." — Zedd

Wizard's First Rule, Chapter 22, page 218

"My father taught me something very much like that. He said, 'Don't shed tears for those already in the ground, until after you have brought vengeance to those who put them there. There will be time enough, then.'" — Kahlan

Stone of Tears, Chapter 29, page 322

"Youth. Youth holds much hope, but not much wisdom. I know the ways of people. Of men. He has been gone too long from my skirts. He will have long ago forgotten me, and found another." — Verna Sauventreen

"Zedd used to tell me that if the road is easy, you're likely going the wrong way." — Richard

Soul of the Fire, Chapter 35, page 254

"Evil is not one large entity, but a collection of countless, small depravities brought up from the muck by petty men." — Richard

Faith of the Fallen

"Everything is valuable under the right conditions. To a man dying of thirst, water be more precious than gold. To a drowning man, water be of little worth and great trouble." — Adie

Wizard's First Rule, Chapter 17

"It is the first responsibility of a friend to provide a shoulder to cry on." — Richard

Wizard's First Rule, Chapter 5, page 53

"Cut. Once committed to fight, Cut. Everything else is secondary. Cut. That is your duty, your purpose, your hunger. There is no rule more important, no commitment that overrides this one. Cut." — Richard

"Nathan said that sometimes prophecy overwhelms our attempts to outwit it, and that sometimes we think we are more clever than we are, believing we can stay the hand of fate, if we wish it hard enough." — Kahlan

“As you learn to be other than Mord-Sith, like I learned as I grew up, you'll find that being a friend is to like a person for who they are, even the parts you don't understand. The reasons you like them makes the things you don't understand unimportant. You don't have to understand, or do the same, or live their lives for them. If you truly care for them, then you want them to be who they are; that was why you liked them in the first place.” — Richard

Blood of the Fold, Chapter 36, page 312

"Slaves, slaves to anything or anyone, despite how much they abhor it, will often cling to that slavery out of fear the alternative would be insufferable. Look at a drunk, a slave to liquor, who thinks us cruel for trying to to get him abandon his slavery." — Ann

Soul of the Fire, Chapter 57, page 424

"Sometimes people choose evil because it suits them or because they're afraid, or because they think they will get something for themselves out of it." — Kahlan

Soul of the Fire

"Man is the only creature who willingly submits to the fangs of a predator." — Richard

Chainfire

"Everyone makes mistakes. How a person deals with their mistakes is a mark of their character." — Richard

'It's not hard,' Kahlan said as she pressed the handle into Nicci's hand. 'When the time is right, just stick the pointed end somewhere important in someone you really don't like.'"

Confessor, Chapter 33

"If anything goes wrong, you die first." - Richard

Wizard's First Rule

"Bags, woman, shall I tell them that it would be rather inconvenient for them to attack right now and to please come back to kill us later?" — Zedd, to Verna

Faith of the Fallen, Chapter 39, page 371

"'If we all knew each other's secrets, it would prove a very strange world. Besides, it would take all the fun out of the telling of them.' His thin lips widened in a smile, his eyes sparkled. 'But I fear no secret of a person I trust, and he has no need to fear mine. It is part of being friends.'" — Zedd

Wizard's First Rule, Chapter 22, page 218

"Stop looking so young and innocent all the time, Warren. It's just plain irritating." — Cara

Faith of the Fallen, Chapter 35, page 342

Berdine: Lord Rahl has very big hands. They fit perfectly over my breasts.

Kahlan glanced over her shoulder as she sat up, seeing that Richard was still fast asleep. 'No,' she whispered. 'You get some sleep. You need rest, too.'

Kahlan yawned and stretched her back. She took Cara's elbow and pulled her a short distance away out of earshot, and leaned close. 'I think your right. There's more than enough of us to stand watch and all still get enough rest. Let's let Richard sleep till morning.'

Cara smiled her agreement before heading for her bedroll. Conspiracy designed to protect Richard suited the Mord-Sith."

"The wizards were under constant threat, and forbidden by edict from using magic. They knew that sooner or later they would be used against the people. They may have made mistakes in the past, and disappointed their teacher, but the most important thing they were taught was to be protectors of the people and in no way to bring them harm. As their most loving act for the people, they gave their lives to stop Darken Rahl. I think their teacher would have been proud." — Kahlan

Wizard's First Rule, Chapter 7, page 74

She returned to Demmin Nass, who stood where he had been told to wait.

There were tears in his eyes.

"Please, Mistress, command me."

Kahlan pulled a knife from his belt, ignoring his request. With her other hand, she unfastened the flanged battle mace from its hook. "Take off your pants." She waited until he had pulled them off and stood once more before her. "Kneel."

The coldness of her voice sent a shiver through Zedd as he watched the big man kneel before her...

Kahlan turned the mace around, holding the handle down to Nass.

"Hold this for me."

He took it and held it at his side. Kahlan kneeled down in front of him, close.

"Spread your legs," she ordered in an icy voice. She reached down between his legs, gripping him in one hand. He flinched, grimaced. "Don't move," she warned. He became still. "How many of the little boys you've molested have you killed?"

"I don't know, Mistress. I don't keep count. I've done it for many years, since I was young. I don't always kill them. Most live."

"Make a good guess." He thought a moment.

"More than eighty. Less than one hundred twenty."

Zedd could see the glint off the knife as she put it under him. Chase unfolded his arms, stood up straighter, his jaw muscles tightening at hearing what Demmin Nass had done.

"I'm going to cut these off. When I do, I don't want you to make a sound," she whispered. "Not one sound. Don't even flinch."

"Yes, Mistress."

"Look into my eyes. I wish to see it in your eyes."

Her arm with the knife strained, and jerked up. The blade came up red.

Demmin's knuckles around the mace were white.

The Mother Confessor rose to her feet in front of him. "Hold out your hand."

Demmin held a shaking hand before her. She put the bloody sack in his palm.

"Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours." — Words to the D'Haran devotion

"And the truth is that you are a bastard son, of a bastard son, of a bastard son! And all of those bastard sons, all the way back, had the gift. Worse, Zedd has the gift. You have the gift, but it is from two blood lines of wizards. You are a very dangerous person, Richard Rahl. You have the gift. In this case, I would be more inclined to call it a curse." — Shota

"We present Lord Rahl, the Seeker of Truth and wielder of the Sword of Truth, the bringer of death, the Master of D'Hara, the ruler of the Midlands, the commander of the gar nation, the champion of free people and bane of the wicked, and the betrothed of the Mother Confessor." — Berdine

Temple of the Winds

"Lunetta, I believe there is trouble. I believe the Creator is going insane." — Brogan

Blood of the Fold, Chapter 44, page 370

Richard: "If you don't tell me where the Mother Confessor is, you are going to die."

"I will remember only that I loved him, and could never tell him." — Kahlan

"It's my life. If this is the end, all there is to be, then I will do with the rest of my life as I wish. It's my life to live, not yours to live for me. I'm going with you, and that is final." — Cara

Faith of the Fallen

"With hate in my heart...vengeance without mercy." — Anson

"The bird let out a slow chicken cackle. It sounded like a chicken, but in her heart she knew it wasn't. In that instant, she completely understood the concept of a chicken that was not a chicken. This looked like a chicken, like most of the Mud People's chickens. But this was no chicken. This was evil manifest."

Soul of the Fire, Chapter 10, page 70

Princess Violet glared at him.

"My mother says that Confessor Kahlan will come back and that we'll have a surprise for her the next time she comes here. I just want you to know because my mother said you'll be dead by then. My mother says I get to decide what to do to her. First, I'm going to cut off her hair." Her hands were in fists, her face red. "Then I'm going to let all the guards rape her, every one! Then I'm going to put her in the dungeon for a few years so they'll have someone to play with! Then when I get tired of hurting her, I'll have her head chopped off and put it on a pole where I can watch it rot!"

Richard actually felt sorry for the little Princess. The sadness for her came over him in a wave. At that feeling, he was surprised to feel the thing in him that had come awake rise up.

Princess Violet squeezed her eyes shut, stuck her tongue out far as she could. It was like a red flag. The strength of the awakened power exploded through him. He could feel her jaw shatter like a crystal goblet on a stone floor when his boot came up under it. The impact of the blow lifted the Princess into the air. Her own teeth severed her tongue before they, too, shattered. She landed on her back, a good distance away, trying to scream through the gushing blood.

Once in place, her pulse pounding, she turned. Nicci's gaze rose up the legs, the robes, the arms, the bodies of the two peoples, up to their faces. She felt as if a giant fist squeezed her heart to a stop.

This was what was in Richard's eyes brought into existence in glowing white marble. To see it fully realized was like being struck by lightning.

In that instant, her entire life, everything that had ever happened to her, everything she had ever seen, heard, or done, seemed to come together in one flash of emotional violence. Nicci cried out in pain at the beauty of it, and more so at the beauty of what it represented.

Her eyes fell on the name carved in the stone base.

LIFE

Nicci collapsed to the floor in tears, in abject shame, in horror, in revulsion, in sudden blinding comprehension...In pure joy.

Faith of the Fallen, Chapter 64

(Nicci reveals Richard's statue to Victor, Ishaq, and the rest of the town)

"It was something the like of which most of these people had never in their lives seen.

It was vision to the blind.

It was water to the thirsty.

It was life to the dying."

Faith of the Fallen, Chapter 65

"Richard leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. 'I know what it's like to feel regret for how you were born, for what you have, or don't have. I hated being born the way I was - with the gift. But I came to realize how senseless such feelings are, how completely wrong it was to think that way.'

'But it's different with me,' Jennsen said as she pushed at the sand with a finger, erasing the little ruts she'd made with the pebble/ 'There are others like you - wizards or sorceresses with the gift. Everyone else can at least see colors, as you put it. I'm the only one like this.'

Richard gazed at his half sister, a beautiful, bright, un-gifted half sister that any previous Lord Rahl would have murdered on the spot, and was overcome with a radiant smile. 'Jennsen, I think of you as born pure. You're like a new snowflake, different than any other, and startlingly beautiful.'"

Naked Empire, Chapter 4, page 35

"Richard is a pebble in the pond - an individual at the center of so many things. He touches so many things. He has turned out to be a core element in all our lives. Everything turns on what he does, on the decisions he makes. If he takes a wrong step, we all fall down." — Ann

Confessor, Chapter 18, page 198

"Richard loves Kahlan. That says it all - it says everything." — Nicci

Confessor, Chapter 18, page 200

"Kahlan guide me. Kahlan teach me. Kahlan protect me. In your light I thrive. In your mercy I am sheltered. In your wisdom I am humbled. I live only to love you. My life is yours." — Richard

"Who could forget Richard? Trouble and wonder in one package." — Sister Simona

Blood of the Fold

"[Zedd] always said that if you accept the possibility, then you make it real. I've decided that until someone proves it otherwise to me, I'm not going to accept his death. I believe in him. I believe he's alive and out there, somewhere, causing someone trouble." — Richard

Blood of the Fold, Chapter , page 619

(Richard addressing the Sisters of the Light when he first arrives at the Palace of the Prophets)

"His fingers tapped the Rada’Han around his neck. 'As long as you keep this collar on me you are my captors and I am your prisoner. Since I have committed no aggression against you that makes us enemies. We are at war. Sister Verna has made a pledge to me that I will be taught to control the gift and when I have learned what is required I will be set free. For now, as long as you keep that pledge we have a truce. But there are conditions. I have been collared before. The person who put that collar on me brought me pain, to punish me, to teach me, to subdue me. That is the sole purpose of a collar, you collar a beast, you collar your enemies. I made her much the same offer I am making you. I begged her to release me, she would not. I was forced to kill her. Not one of you could ever hope to be good enough to lick her boots. She did as she did because she was tortured and broken; made mad enough to use a collar to hurt people. She did it against her nature. You do it because you think it is your right. You enslave in the name of your Creator. I don’t know your creator. The only one beyond this world who I know would do as you do is the Keeper. As far as I am concerned you may as well be the Keeper's disciples. If you do as she, and use this collar to bring me pain the truce will be ended. You may think you hold the leash to this collar, but I promise you if the truce ends you will find that what you hold is a bolt of lightning.'"

Wizard's First Rule, 1994 by Terry GoodkindStone of TearsBlood of the FoldTemple of the WindsSoul of the FireFaith of the FallenThe Pillars of CreationNaked EmpireDebt of BonesChainfirePhantomConfessorThe Omen MachineThe Third KingdomSevered Souls,Warheart